2nd National Conference on Orphans and Other ... - FHI 360

3. Psychosocial
Normal stresses and grieving.
Avoidance, teasing and neglect.
Social isolation and discrimination.
Behavioural disturbance and fatalism.
Stigma, self-stigmatisation and abuse.
Commentary: Regarding economic needs, the
learners and teachers surveyed in ±148 schools
across the country were most passionate in citing
hunger as a common cause of dropout and poor
performance. Even children whose school fees
have been paid tend to drop out because they
are hungry. The role-players must look at this.
Regarding impacts in general, study respondents
strongly emphasised that the impacts often begin
before parents die.
SLIDE 7: IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCA-
TION QUALITY AND ACCESS
1. Dropout and declining/delayed enrolment.
29% of students and 11% of teachers
identified orphanhood as an important
reason for dropout.
2. Erratic attendance – mentioned by most of
the respondents.
3. Declining performance – mentioned by 87%
of the teachers interviewed.
4. Ill-discipline – many children who have lost
their parents do things to attract the attention
they need.
5. Transfers and other disruptions – moving to
a new town, home environment and school,
for example, can negatively affect a child’s
well-being.
6. Stress on peers and staff – leads to avoidance
and neglect, and the cycle is repeated.
7. Lower fee/levy income for schools?
Commentary: Participants in this conference
have raised the school fee/levy question with
passion and despair, and many with anger. It is
hard to believe that our traditional cultures have
been eroded to such an extent that teachers
hailing from the very same communities as the
children are turning them away in the full knowledge
that they have just buried a parent, and
in many cases both parents. This tells us where
our society is going. Policy will not change this.
Having a policy and sending letters to schools
as reminders is not sensitisation, but rather it is
part of the overall training needed to change our
attitudes. We should also bear in mind that after
independence our education philosophy shifted
away from a focus on pass rates to a focus on
outcomes and competencies, but still principals,
teachers and the community cling to the old way,
with the result that schools are doing everything
possible to find additional resources to ensure
high pass rates rather than taking all measures
possible to ensure positive outcomes and competencies.
A child should be judged according to
where she or he has come from and moved to
through the school system in terms of outcomes
and competencies, not pass rates, and schools
and society at large must be made aware that a
high pass rate is not the aim of education. If this
is seen to be the aim, schools will feel pressurised
and in turn they will pressurise children and their
parents to pay fees for materials that will ensure
a high pass rate and nothing more. This conference
has to consider how we will change the
attitudes of principals, teachers and the whole
community.
SLIDE 8: IMPLICATIONS OF ORPHAN-
HOOD FOR EDUCATION
1. Educators say orphanhood is a significant
problem in schools.
2. Similar needs already exist among children
in areas with early or less severe HIV/AIDS
epidemics.+
Household income and pre-existing
barriers to enrolment and performance
may be more dominant than orphan
status per se.
3. Material needs of OVC are seen as most
pressing.
Fees, hunger, need to work.
4. Vulnerable children are at more risk of HIV
infection.
5. Uncertainties:
Girls > boys?
Older > younger learners?
Long-term social and psychological
effects
Commentary: There were no additional points
made on Slide 8.
<strong>2nd</strong> <strong>National</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children – Windhoek, Namibia, 25-27 June 2002: Full Report
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